Foreign markets hand Canada a record $619.2 billion swing in net foreign assets
The financial sector‘s external debt rose $88.3bn to $2.98tn, a fourth consecutive quarterly increase, and accounted for 59.0 percent of the national total at the end of June.
Canada’s net position fell $310.8bn in the first quarter to $1,360.5bn, its lowest level since the third quarter of 2023 and down from $1,825.0bn at the end of September 2025, Statistics Canada reported in its first-quarter release.
Canada’s current account moved from a deficit of $8.3bn in the first quarter to a surplus of $8.8bn in the second on a seasonally adjusted basis, Statistics Canada reported in its August 27 balance of payments release.
The surplus was the first since the second quarter of 2022 and the largest since the fourth quarter of 2005, led by energy products within a broad rise in goods exports.
Writing in The Hub, Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, argued the swing reflects a commodity windfall, saying “Canada is a commodity-exporting country, and right now commodities are ripping.”
